Cops probe personal enmity angle

CP SHOOTING Family of trader says they were being threatened for past fortnight, claims he wasn’t carrying any cash with him My son runs a currency exchange business, but he was not carrying any cash with him. Today, his bag only had some fruit and a tiffin box containing lunch.

SUNITA SINGH, Tasveer’s mother

NEWDELHI: The family of Tasveer Singh, a businessman who was shot at in Connaught Place on Wednesday, said they were baffled as to why the trader was targeted by two masked men arguably in one of the most secured parts of Delhi.

The incident took place at around 10:15am at A-block in Connaught Place’s inner circle -—which houses the Wenger’s pastry shop and Rodeo restaurant.

“My son runs a currency exchange business, but he was not carrying any cash with him. Today, his bag only had some fruit and a tiffin box containing lunch,” said Singh’s mother, Sunita.

On Wednesday afternoon, hours after the incident had taken place, the medium-sized black backpack that Tasveer was carrying lay near a shop nearby. “There is nothing worth stealing inside the bag. Maybe the attackers believed that he will be carrying cash on him since he ran a currency exchange business,” said Manveer Singh, the victim’s friend.

Apart from the ‘snatchinggone-wrong’ angle, the police are also looking at the possibility of a personal enmity that could have prompted the attack on Singh. According to Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), Singh’s two sons are in jail in connection with an attempt to murder case. The duo was to attend a court hearing on Wednesday.

Though police are yet to question the people who had got Singh’s sons jailed, his family alleged they had been receiving threats for the past fortnight.

“Singh was seeking a compromise but negotiations had turned ugly. The other party had threatened to teach us a lesson,” said Singh’s brother, Pankaj.

But Singh’s nephew, Harish Kumar, said that his uncle was neither named in the case nor was attending the court hearings. “If their intention was to scare him then why would they pretend to snatch his bag,” Kumar said.

When Singh’s family had first received the call about the shooting, they feared it were his two sons who had been attacked in court. “Firing in a court premise is more believable than such a crime happening in a place like Connaught Place,” said Singh’s mother, Sunita.

The shooting at 10.15am had left a bullet lodged in the waist of Singh, a burly 50-year-old man. But according to eyewitnesses, Singh neither collapsed, nor panicked. “He did not even know he was shot. I told him he was bleeding after seeing his white shirt turn red with blood,” said Narendra Kumar who owns a cigarette shop near the crime spot of CP’S A-block.

Helped by a friend, Singh then walked to a auto-rickshaw stand nearby only to be refused a ride to the nearest hospital.

“Four to five auto drivers refused to take him to hospital despite us pleading with them. Only when we pointed out that Singh was bleeding profusely and his life was at risk that one auto driver agree to help,” said Lalit Chauhan, a parking attendant near the crime spot. The victim, Tasveer Singh, 50, a tall, burly man carrying a bag on his back, walks out of a Metro lift of Rajiv Chowk at 10.15am. He walks towards his currency exchange shop. Few people around as most shops were yet to open. Two young men, who had masked their faces with handkerchiefs, sit and wait under a tree near the victim’s office in Connaught Place’s A-block. One of the men was spotted carrying a backpack The victim raises an alarm, forcing the two suspects to abandon the snatching attempt and flee. They crouch and run in order to be not captured by the multiple CCTVS. The victim is informed by locals that he has been shot. He is helped to a nearby auto stand where four-five auto drivers refuse to ferry him before one takes him to a hospital